Numbers up at U.S. soup kitchens, Second Harvest says

BY STEPHEN OHLEMACHER

WASHINGTON - When Lisa Koch asked several people at a Chicago soup kitchen to complete a survey of the people who eat there, she got a surprising response: "They asked how long it would take because they had to get back to work after lunch."

A national survey of people eating at soup kitchens, food banks and shelters found that 36 percent came from households in which at least one person had a job. In the Chicago area, it was 39 percent.

"Even though the economy might be changing, it isn’t creating the kinds of jobs that allow people to make ends meet," said Koch of the Greater Chicago Food Depository.

More than 25 million Americans turned to the nation’s largest network of food banks, soup kitchens and shelters for meals last year, up 9 percent from 2001, says the report by America’s Second Harvest.

Those seeking food included 9 million children and nearly 3 million senior citizens, the report says.

"The face of hunger doesn’t have a particular color, and it doesn’t come from a particular neighborhood," said Ertharin Cousin, executive vice president of America’s Second Harvest. "They are your neighbors, they are working Americans, they are senior citizens who have worked their entire lives, and they are children."

The organization said it interviewed 52,000 people at food banks, soup kitchens and shelters across the country last year. The network represents about 39,000 hunger-relief organizations, or about 80 percent of those in the United States. The vast majority are run locally by churches and private nonprofit groups.

The surveys were done before Hurricanes Katrina and Rita hit the Gulf Coast in 2005. After the hurricanes, demand for emergency food assistance tripled in Gulf Coast states, according to a separate report by the group.

The new report, being released today, found that 35 percent of people seeking food came from households that received food stamps. Cousin said the numbers show that the government program, while important, is insufficient.

"The benefits they are receiving are not enough," Cousin said.

Government reports also show the number of hungry Americans increasing.

A U.S. Department of Agriculture report released last year said 13.5 million American households, or nearly 12 percent, had difficulty providing enough food for family members at some time in 2004. That was up from about 11 percent in 2003.

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